Resolutions

I am, by nature, a goal setter and maker of lists. It follows then that every year for as long as I can remember, I’ve set about making New Years Resolutions. Big, lofty goals for how I would be a better person and achieve wonderful things for the coming year. When I say that I am a goal setter and list maker it does not follow that I always follow them and, like many people, I always find myself in June wondering what happened to my resolve and why I haven’t been following my resolutions. They’re always great – very ambitious and detailed – but not always motivating. This year I am determined to change that.

I firmly believe that you do need some focus for the year otherwise you find yourself sitting around on NYE with a glass of champagne in your hand wondering where the year went (or is that just me?). With this in mind, I looked around a little online and started to think about a different way to look at my goals for the year. Notice that I didn’t say resolutions there, they are goals and focus areas. I picked 6 areas that I want to focus on and made some goals to sit underneath. I have 4 key goals for the year (one is a home renovation! Help!) that will help me measure progress. I still have resolutions but I have relegated them to more of a loose list of “rules” to help guide me. Let me explain. I thought about how I’d like to do things differently in 2013. One of the things about me is that I can be a bit of a perfectionist (stop laughing husband), OK, quite a lot actually. When I thought about it, I really waster a lot of time trying for perfection when done will do so there are a couple of resolutions to help me manage my time: “Keep it simple”, “Important first”, “Enjoy the journey”, “Not everything needs to be organised” and, my favourite, “Perfection is the enemy of done” (borrowed from this book).

I also found a great planning resources on a blog by Susannah Conway where the writer talked about having a word for the year that sums up what you want out of the year. This was an easy one – “Simplify”. There are many things in my life that I’d like to simplify, including how I work, so this seemed like a good all-encompassing word.

I had intended, like any good learning geek, to reflect my 2012 and distil my learning. Hmmm, not much time for that but I feel like this is something I do all year anyway so I’m happy with that. Maybe next year (she says with a cringe).

All of this goal-setting makes me wonder about how we set goals at work (I’ve done that too for 2013 but only the first quarter since things change so much so fast). Should we “simplify” our performance systems? Why do we need them to be so convoluted? Complicated may look clever but it takes too much time and effort to follow. That was my problem in years past. I has beautifully articulated goals for the year but then no real impetus to follow them. Let’s see in a year if my simplify approach works.